Compaq Availability Manager Version 2.2-1
Release Notes
The following notes address late-breaking information and
known problems for the Availability Manager Version 2.2-1.
These notes fall into the following categories:
o Installation note
o Problems corrected
o New and changed features
o Operation notes
o Display notes
1 Installation Note
This note pertains to the installation of Availability
Manager Version 2.2-1.
1.1 Uninstall Before Installing the New Kit
Before you install a kit with a new driver, you need to
uninstall the old driver first. This is explained in the
Version 2.2-1 installation instructions.
In addition, before uninstalling, you might want to make
a copy of your .INI file as a reminder of the names of the
groups you usually monitor.
2 Problems Corrected in Versions 2.2 and 2.2-1
The following sections discuss key problems that have been
corrected since the release of the Availability Manager
Version 2.0-1.
2.1 Status Display in Cluster Members Summary Pane
In prior versions, the Availability Manager incorrectly
displayed UNKNOWN or BRK_NON in the "Status" field. This
problem has been corrected, and the field now correctly
displays one of the values shown in the following table:
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___________________________________________________________
Status
Value Description
___________________________________________________________
NEW New system in cluster.
BRK_NEW New system; there has been a break in the
connection.
MEMBER System is a member of the cluster.
BRK_MEM Member; there has been a break in the
connection.
NON System is not a member of the cluster.
BRK_NON Non-member; there has been a break in the
connection.
REMOVED System has been removed from the cluster.
BRK_REM System has been removed; there has also been a
break in the connection.
___________________________________________________________
2.2 Changing Versions of OpenVMS
In previous versions, if a node stopped and then restarted
under a different version of OpenVMS, the Availability
Manager did not always function correctly. This problem has
been corrected so that the Availability Manager gracefully
handles version changes on the target system.
3 New and Changed Features in Versions 2.2 and 2.2-1
The following sections discuss new and changed features
introduced in these versions of the Availability Manager.
3.1 Support for New Version of OpenVMS
Availability Manager Version 2.2-1 supports the DII COE
(Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating
Environment) on OpenVMS Version 7.2-6C2.
3.2 Choosing a Network Card on Windows Systems
The Availability Manager Windows installation detects when
a system has more than one network card and asks the user
to select one for Availability Manager LAN communication.
To change your choice at a later time to use a different
network card, you must restart Availability Manager. This
feature applies to both and Windows 2000 and XP systems.
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3.3 New Availability Manager Driver
The new Availability Manager driver supports Plug-and-
Play and Power Management on Windows 2000 and XP systems
and does not use PATHWORKS components. Therefore, the
Availability Manager now supports laptop PCs and does not
have conflicts with the Pathworks client product.
3.4 Colors of Columns Reordered in Group Pane
In the Group pane of the main Application window, the order
of the colors of the columns indicating the various states
of nodes in a group has been changed. You can now reduce
the size of the window and still be able to see the black,
red, and green columns at a glance.
3.5 New Cluster Display Features
The following items have been added to the Cluster Members
pane (the lower pane on the Cluster Summary page). Note
that these new features require that the OpenVMS Data
Collector nodes run OpenVMS Version 7.3 or later and
have RMDRIVER loaded at boot time. The Clusters chapter
of Availability Manager User's Guide contains details of
these features.
The following list outlines these new Cluster display
features and the version of OpenVMS in which they were
introduced.
o New SCA Port display (Version 7.3-1).
o New SCA Port fix to change the management priority
assigned to a port (Version 7.3-1). Right-click anywhere
on a Port display line to display a menu containing the
Port fix option.
o Enhanced SCA Circuits line showing management parameters
(Version 7.3-1).
o New SCA Circuit fix to change the management priority
assigned to a circuit (Version 7.3-1). Right-click
anywhere on the Circuit display line to display a menu
containing the Circuit fix option.
o New LAN Adapter summary window (Version 7.3). Right-
click one of the top-level Cluster Member nodes to
display a menu containing the Adapter Summary option.
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o LAN Adapter fixes available from the Adapter Summary
window (Version 7.3). Right-click a handle preceding
a node in the Cluster Members pane to display a menu
containing the Adapter Summary window. Then right-click
a data item in the Adapter Summary window to display a
menu containing Adapter Fixes.
3.6 Changes to Handling of Cluster Data
For the Cluster Summary page, a number of data collection
programs are sent to OpenVMS nodes to collect data.
Information for the top level of the Cluster Members
pane comes from the node selected for the display. For
any particular cluster member, two or more data collection
programs might start.
In the Availability Manager Version 2.0-1 and earlier
releases, programs that gather cluster data start only
when you select the Cluster Summary tab. All these programs
stop when you select another tab. If you switch back to the
Cluster Summary tab, the Cluster Members display restarts
from the beginning. In addition, the SCA Summary, and SCS
Connections programs start for each node in the cluster
that the Availability Manager has configured. LAN Virtual
Circuit and Channel Summary programs start only if you
expand the tree to that level.
In the Availability Manager Versions 2.2 and 2.2-1, the
Cluster Members program starts when the Node Summary
page is created. This program fills in the top level of
information in the Cluster Member pane. The SCA Summary
and SCS Connections programs do not start at this time. The
Cluster Members program runs whether or not you select the
Cluster Summary tab. The SCA Summary and SCS Connections
programs start only if you open that part of the tree.
Note that all data below the top level of the Cluster
Members pane is collected from that member and not from
the node selected in the Node Pane of the Application
window. (A cluster member has a handle preceding it only
if it has been configured by the Availability Manager.)
When you switch to another tab, any lower-level programs
are suspended and resume only when you switch back to the
Cluster Summary tab. (The display is greyed out until fresh
data is received.)
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4 Operation Notes
The following sections contain notes pertaining to the
operation of the Availability Manager Versions 2.2 and
2.2-1.
4.1 Changing Startup Parameters
When monitoring large numbers of devices on large clusters,
the Availability Manager sometimes runs out of internal
memory. When it does, the Availability Manager stops
running and uses all available CPU time attempting to
recover enough memory to continue operating.
A way to solve this problem is to set higher limits on the
memory the Availability Manager can use. You can do this
by changing the settings of the startup parameters shown in
the following table:
___________________________________________________________
Windows OpenVMS Default
Description_____________Parameters Parameters Settings[1]
___________________________________________________________
Minimum or startup msnn[2]m IHEAP=nn[2]M 24
memory parameter
Maximum memory that mxNN[2]m MHEAP=NN[2]M 60
the Availability
Manager is allowed
to use
[1]These values replace the default values shown in the
OpenVMS installation instructions.
[2]nn and NN represent the number of megabytes
___________________________________________________________
These startup parameters have been set to meet the needs of
most customers. However, under special circumstances, you
might need to adjust them.
Steps on Windows Systems
To change these startup parameters on Windows 2000 or XP
systems, follow these steps:
1. Right-click the Availability Manager icon in the Start
menu.
2. Select Properties.
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3. Within the line labeled "target," find the "mx"
parameter and increase it; for example:
mx80m
Do not forget to add "m" at the end.
4. Click OK.
5. If you want, copy the icon to your desktop. (You need
to change all other Availability Manager shortcuts as
well.)
6. Restart the Availability Manager.
Step on OpenVMS Systems
To change these startup parameters on OpenVMS systems,
enter the startup command with the IHEAP and MHEAP
qualifiers:
$ AVAIL /AVAIL /IHEAP=64M /MHEAP=128M
Usage Note:
For increased heap sizes, the value of PGFLQUOTA must be at
least:
140,000 + (2,000 * MHEAP)
4.2 Problem with Seasonal Time Changes
For some time zones, especially European ones, the time-
zone logic in the Java software libraries that the Data
Analyzer uses might disagree with the Windows operating
system about when when seasonal time changes occur. For a
two-week period in early April and late October, you might
see a one-hour discrepancy between the time shown in the
Data Analyzer and the time of day shown by the system and
the Date-Time Control panel.
Also, Sun's Java classes disagree with Windows about
whether seasonal time changes even exist for Asian time
zones. The Windows DateTime CP usually indicates that a
seasonal time change is not possible for these zones; time
strings generated from the calendar classes in Java appear
to recognize seasonal time changes. Therefore, for all time
zones between eastern Europe, going east to Alaska, a one-
hour discrepancy is likely from April through October. This
discrepancy occurs for months at a time.
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For OpenVMS systems, make sure that the time zone
differential logical name SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL is
defined correctly.
4.3 Event Reporting Problems
The following list contains known event-reporting problems
that were reported in Version 2.2:
o Unimplemented threshold events: LOSTVC NOPROC
o Event reporting irregularities:
- Some posted events may not be canceled promptly when
the condition goes away.
- LOVOTE and LOVLSP events are posted for every node in
the cluster rather than once per cluster.
4.4 Out-of-Memory Problems on Long Runs
If a session runs for many days, and the Data Analyzer
is collecting data on many nodes, the Data Analyzer
might run out of virtual memory (object heap). (See the
Availability Manager installation instructions for Windows
or OpenVMS for details on how to modify the heap size.)
On Windows systems, the Data Analyzer does not report the
problem. On OpenVMS systems, the Data Analyzer displays
an "OutOfMemoryException" error in the window in which
the Data Analyzer was started. On either system, one or
more parts of the display might stop updating. The only
workaround is to restart the Data Analyzer.
5 Display Notes
The following sections contain display notes pertaining to
the Data Analyzer on all platforms and on OpenVMS systems.
5.1 Problems Using the Data Analyzer on All Platforms
The following sections contain notes about the display of
the Data Analyzer on Windows and OpenVMS platforms.
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5.1.1 What to Do If a Node Is Displayed Twice
A node can be displayed twice in the Node pane when the
Data Collector (RMDRIVER) is started before the network
transports are started. To avoid this problem, always
start your network transports (DECnet) before starting
the Availability Manager Data Collector.
5.1.2 Incomplete Repainting of Windows
If you obscure part of an Availability Manager window with
another window, the obscured portion of the Availability
Manager window might not repaint completely when you move
the top window. This appears to be a Java Swing problem
that is currently under investigation.
5.1.3 Page and Swap File Names in Event List Display
If page and swap file events are signaled before the Data
Analyzer has resolved their file names from the file ID
(FID), events such as LOPGSP display the FID instead of
the file name information. You can determine the file name
for the FID by checking the File Name field in the I/O Page
Swap Files page. The FID for the file name is displayed
after the file name.
5.1.4 Events Sometimes Displayed After Background Collection
Stops
On both OpenVMS and Windows systems, the Data Analyzer
sometimes displays events after users customize their
systems to stop collecting a particular kind of data.
This is most likely to occur when the Data Analyzer is
monitoring many nodes. Under these conditions, a data
handler sometimes clears events before all pending packets
have been processed. The events based on the data in these
packets are displayed even though users have requested that
this data not be collected.
5.1.5 Truncated LAN Channel Summary Display
The LAN Channel Summary display might be disabled for
some OpenVMS nodes if there are more than seven channels
for that virtual circuit. This problem results from a
restriction in the OpenVMS Version 7.3 PEDRIVER. For this
condition, the following error message is displayed:
Error retrieving ChSumLAN data, error code=0x85 (Continuation data
disallowed for request)
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This problem has been corrected in the OpenVMS Version
7.3-1 PEDRIVER.
5.2 Problems Using the Data Analyzer on OpenVMS Systems
The following sections contain notes about the display of
the Data Analyzer on OpenVMS platforms.
5.2.1 Exiting Field on Data Collection Customization Page
While using the OpenVMS Data Collection Customization page
on OpenVMS, if you change a data collection interval and
press Enter to exit the field, the value is not entered as
expected. You must use the mouse to move the cursor out of
the field.
5.2.2 Long Runs Exhaust XLIB Resource ID
The version of Motif currently shipping with OpenVMS
is based on X11R5. That release of X11 uses a resource
ID allocation scheme that works poorly with the Motif
support in Java for OpenVMS. As a result, most long-
running Availability Manager sessions will stop updating
the display at a time that depends on the speed of the
OpenVMS machine. For example, a session running on a dual-
processor 275 MHz system reported the following after 14
hours:
Xlib: resource ID allocation space exhausted!
On faster machines, this message was reported after only 8
hours. This problem is under investigation.
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